The PS4 is still selling much faster than expected – and Sony doesn’t know why

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 has been a bona fide sales sensation, lighting up the charts on its way to 10 million units sold since launch — and amusingly enough, Sony’s own executives don’t actually know why the PS4 is selling so well. While the company’s sales trajectory is excellent, there’s some concern that an early burn could lead to a catastrophic flame-out at a later date.

Speaking to Eurogamer, president of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida spoke about the triumphs and challenges of the console, including the company’s investigation into what features, exactly, consumers are buying it for. This has been a bit confusing — thus far, there simply isn’t any single clear reason why gamers are buying in such numbers or opting for the PS4 over the Xbox One.

When Yoshida says that Sony is concerned about exhausting the core gamer market, it’s not a ridiculous fear. The PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U all debuted to strong initial sales only to fall off a cliff once early demand was met. Nintendo kept the 3DS alive with steep price cuts and game bundling, but the Wii U continues to lag. Sony lost billions on the early PS3 ramp — keeping the price up is an essential part of the console’s long-term strategy.

In retrospect, however, it may have been a mistake to read too much into Nintendo’s performance and what it said about the next-gen console business. Nintendo, by its own admission, is a software company that happens to make a hardware platform. Third-party titles are known second-class citizens in Nintendo’s eyes — you buy a console from them because you want to play Smash Brothers, Zelda, Metroid, or Mario — not because you’re interested in titles from EA or Ubisoft. That focus pays off when Nintendo delivers excellent games, but it leaves even the die-hard faithful with little reason to buy a console before the games are ready. There’s no point in spending $250 now for a paperweight until your favorite franchise releases a game.

With Sony and Microsoft, there’s a much greater sense of buying into a system — and while the PS4 doesn’t have any single game that seems to be driving sales, that could mean the floor is wide open for multiple console-defining titles to drop and seize the day.

PS4: A great success for pedestrian reasons?

PS4, in pieces [Image credit: iFixit]

My own theory is that the PS4 has succeeded thus far on its overall strength rather than a single killer feature. In 2006, Sony was the last, most costly console with an expensive bet on a then-unproven feature. It had abandoned defining features like rumble in favor of a new six-axis control scheme. It had a disastrous launch campaign and a miserable launch attach rate thanks in part to an incredibly difficult architecture and a weak developer support system. When the head of the company proudly attests that the console is supposed to be difficult to program because if it wasn’t it might threaten Sony’s revenue stream, it’s not a great way to build developer support.

The PS4, in contrast, had none of that baggage. As Microsoft floundered in repeated attempts to find and address a core market, Sony stuck to a dirt-simple message on price and focus. While Microsoft reversed course on Kinect (before finally killing the feature), Sony simply stuck to its guns. This time around, it was Sony out in front with indie announcements, Sony with more powerful hardware, Sony that had the more consistent message.

Before anyone jumps on me for being a fanboy, keep this in mind: I’m not declaring the PS4 a better console — I’m looking to explain why it has objectively sold more units. Unlike the PS2 and PS3, both of which debuted as new content delivery standards (DVD, Blu-ray) were coming online (and were rather excellent players), the PS4 doesn’t offer a new method of content consumption. Nor has its adoption spiked a jump in Blu-ray revenue (physical media remains a huge business but is sharply off its peak as shown below).

It’s not clear how many truly new sales Sony has driven. Yoshida says that “some of the early data was amazing in terms of the number of people who didn’t used to own PS3 have already purchased PS4… And some people never purchased any last-gen hardware: PS3, or Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii.”

That’s two separate data points, and without percentages, we can’t really judge the impact. If 50% of the people buying PS4s owned an Xbox 360 but never a PS3, that would be a huge sign that Sony had seized market share from Microsoft. If 10% of the people buying a PS4 owned an Xbox 360, and 5% had never owned a previous-generation console, that’s still important — but the impact of the numbers is shaped by their size, and Yoshida didn’t reveal that data.

Absent reason to believe otherwise, we’re betting that the PS4 is firing on all thrusters rather than being propelled by any single feature. That’s got to be worrisome for a company trying to understand the appeal to new customers, but the fact is, gamers, en masse, appear to be buying into both platforms despite fears that game consoles were outdated or that neither system would be appealing.

Tagged In

I can think of one reason why to buy PS4 over Xbox One…. PS4 is available for months while Xbox is yet to be released. At least in my country (CZ).

Kevin Mole

you could get one if you wanted one badly enough mate there are loads on the shelves over here in England and wales they cant sell the bloody thing.So I am sure you could get one there are loads on ebay mate nobody wants the xbox one over here so get one .

Vladimir Putin

troll detected

Kevin Mole

what are you on about I told him he can easily get a xbox one there are loads of them here it is not selling it is no secret it is not my fault Microsoft pissed of there customers get over it quick.

vasras

But it costa an arm and a leg to ship, most local (best price) retailers won’t ship abroad, and cross-country warranty-issues are PITA.

ipeedonyou

Butthurt detected

N2K12

with a stupid name like “ipeedonyou” you must be a retard.

Guest

yeah, 10 million people know that!

andy

I can also tell you right now, any country in Europe that has Gamestop Europe in it can sell you an Xbox One right now. If you walk into ANY Gamestop in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland you can buy an Xbox One. They needed to send the unsold ones in Ireland. France, Spain and Germany somewhere.

N2K12

troll. You can personally speak for everyone in your country can you? No retard. you are just trolling. Most people cant afford hundreds of dollars for a console, regardless of make/model. But smart people buy xbox won. Stupid people get ps4.

Michael

Especially considering PS4 wants $144.00/yr to play multi-player AND they offer less than half the APS of PS3 and PS3 is FREE. Sony paid someone to write this article. It’s a shill. The truth is PS4 sales were lower than PS3 and X-Box.

They either offer the PS4 with FREE Multi-player and the same APS as PS3 or I will not use it until years later when I have no choice.

Kevin Mole

oh by the way Microsoft do know where their consoles sell and japan china etc does not seem to buy any of there consoles ,they have tried the popular places and it has not sold it will never outsell the ps4 now no chance .

N2K12

keep telling yourself that. I personally hope more and more retards waste money on an inferior console like the ps4. It will be funny to watch them get stuck with a brick.

Anders

You could easily have imported it from another EU country.

Neithy

I could… but I would never buy a console.

But I am talking about average user, goes to shop and Xbox is not on display. Its to much hussle for him to deal with importing from abroad… Buys PS4.

Joe Cimmarrusti

It appears that the Xbox One has become the underdog as it was first released in 2001…so be it…I deeply enjoyed several exclusive titles during that era…being the underdog makes one more inventive.

justerthought

Yeah like paying a corrupt bribe to Square-Enix and Crystal Dynamics to deny the next Tomb Raider from being played by it’s huge fan base across multiple platforms all over the world. Underdogs get desperate and play dirty. Business ethics and morals go out the window.

N2K12

Xbox one was not released in 2001, you fucking idiot. 2013.

VirtualMark

I think that Sony have won some of Microsoft’s customers. MS really messed up the Xbox One launch, whereas Sony focused on games from the start. Plus MS got a ton of bad publicity for the early DRM issues when they tried to eradicate the second hand market.

And the PS4 is also a more powerful piece of hardware, which will have swayed even more people. Whereas the Xbox struggles to run games in HD and originally forced users to buy a peripheral that a lot of them didn’t want – Kinect.

So basically Microsoft forgot one of the most basic rules of business(again) – look after your customers. They seem to want to try to force the market and it’s clearly not worked out too well for them.

With that being said I’ll probably buy an Xbox One, due to Halo being one of my favourite games, and because they’ve addressed most of the issues that I objected to.

Kevin Mole

you are so right Microsoft shit all over their customers from a great height and they are now reaping what they have sowed.

N2K12

troll. They have been great the whole time.

What?

I don’t understand why people don’t see the obvious. The PS4 sells well because it’s been 8 years. It is(was) cheaper and more powerful than the Xbox. It is a much better looking product. It doesn’t have the RROD overheating issues that Xbox earned in the past generation. People are also hyped up by all the social media craze and news network releasing a new “PS4 beats xbox1” article 5 times a week.

People are just hungry for a new console. Then everything has to do with marketing and PS4 is pretty much getting free marketing thanks to MS’s blabber mouth dumb employees.

VirtualMark

I’m sorry, I don’t follow you. It’s been a few years for the Xbox too, so your logic is flawed. And RROD was a problem for the 360, not the Xbox One. Although some people probably wouldn’t trust Microsoft again after that.

Brian

He also seems to forget the YLOD the ps3 suffered.

Mirimon

the very user fixable, and rare YLoD?? nobody forgot it, xbots pushed real hard to name it such. (fyi, it still falls within the industry standard for hardware failure rates….) YLoD= oversensationalization.

What?

You have just confirmed my statement that RROD does affect Xb1 sales even though it is not a problem with XB1. YLOD was not as bad of a problem as RROD. RROD affected 1/3 XB360 at one point. I would know since I went through 4 XB360.

I never said XB1 did bad. They are doing great. PS4 just did better and part of that is because they have a better reputation and free marketing.

I own an XB1 on launch and i like the console.

Stacey Bright

Yeah people with 360s had a high probability of RROD with a system bought in probably the first 2-3 years. It was even likely to reoccur after getting a repair/refurb. I have a fatboy ps3 that YLOD’d a month or so ago. I’ve owned it since MGS4 was released.

Mirimon

I’ll say it, xb1 is doing bad, while it may have “sold” more units per month compared to 360 launch, when you take into account the actually consumer population the ratio shows it is underselling by over 60% compared to the 360.

Bilal Mahmood

just get a PC problem solved

VirtualMark

I’ve got a PC and a laptop, but thanks for the advice. Perhaps you could tell me how to play the Halo Master Chief Collection on the PC? Thanks.

Mirimon

actually, XB1 is rife with hardware issues as well.. improved from launch 360, but still pitiful, at ~63% failure rate..

VirtualMark

Really? I’ve not heard about this, do you have any links to articles?

Mirimon

brb, but those numbers come from the first few months of retail and return under warranty, there is ST data incoming also, once they account for the volume shift variation.

My store alone had more than half returned for hardware (but one of those was simply unhappy and wanted a swap). But then again, we only ever had and moved a SMALL.. really small amount. That said, if a small amount show a drastic issue, a larger pool will not likely show anything better.

What?

I’ll say it, you’re full of bs. You’re such a fanboy and so biased that you started making up “facts” like “63% failure rate”

Mirimon

go visit square trade yourself, or, find any local retailer and watch the shelves, as xb1 get returned, repackaged, put on clearance, etc…. (anybody about to buy some tech is wise to visit the local repair shop to see what is on the bench more…. and avoid buying that product.)

N2K12

troll. nice to see another fuckwit pull random stats out of it’s asshole. I have never had a single issue with my xbox won. But i have used the ps4, and it looks washed out, blurry, crappy child like graphics. utter rubbish.

Mirimon

if by random, you mean actual facts tested and published by warranty and service providers, then yeah…”random”

you still haven’t grasped the fact that you are just mad at yourself for being a fanatic. Your denial will only leave you with regret and solitude.

silly xbot, games are for PlayStation/PC

Rambling-Mumbler

You’ve been trolling this whole article.

TheKlot

I had YLOD on my PS3 a few years back because I upgraded from a 40gb hard drive to a 500gb hard drive. Add some warm summer day and kaput. But I fixed it with a heat gun, new thermal paste on the cpu and a fan mod controller. Doesn’t overheat anymore. Can you fix RROD this easy?

VirtualMark

Yeah there was a few ways to fix it, but I’m no expert on the subject. I put mine in the oven, which gave me a few months extra, but then it died again.

Josh101

“With that being said I’ll probably buy an Xbox One, due to Halo being one of my favourite games, and because they’ve addressed most of the issues that I objected to.”
So, you are going to purchase from Microsoft after what they attempted? After they showed no regard and disdain for their own customers? They don’t deserve anything from you. But, I guess, it’s your money..

VirtualMark

Ha, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Microsoft punished. But I also love to play Halo. If you can suggest another way for me to play the Master Chief Collection online, then I’m all ears!

Josh101

The only thing that comes to mind is purchasing the system and Halo collection second-hand. But you would still have to pay for XboxLive to play online, effectively still giving them money. Which would likely get invested in the service. You would fall into line with statistics. That’s exactly what Microsoft wants. Which if you care at all, not really worth it. You could also hope one of your friends gets a XboxOne and the Halo game, then you could just play it with them.

VirtualMark

Well I’ll get my Xbox this time, but then I’ll probably torrent Windows 9 if it’s any good. I didn’t pay them for Windows 7 or Office either, as I was annoyed about my 2 RROD’d Xbox 360s and Vista.

Markus Creech

Would you elaborate on what “Microsoft attempted”? Are you speaking of packing kinect with the core system? You make it sound as though they committed a bonafide criminal act. From what I remember they do listen to their customers. (removing options they originally intended to use, selling it without kinect, ect.). I agree with Virtual Mark. I have to by xbox one to play the master chief collection, just like i have to buy a ps to play the last of us and nintendo to play zelda.

Josh101

Well, if you don’t know you would definitely need to read up on alot of things. Microsoft’s original XboxOne policies called for: No used games, once a day internet connectivity, the bundling of a peripheral that HAD to be connected to the console and unveiled in order to “see,” which was most likely an attempt to spy on it’s consumers, openly admitting that the XboxOne will gather your personal information for targeting ads, with a clause in their T.O.S. that says you have to accept that they gather your information specifically for targeting ads, paying Youtube personalities for positive reviews, , I could keep going on. All of this with known involvement in the PRISM scandal, where they were giving our personal information to the NSA, WILLINGLY. They were one of the first companies to sign up, voluntarily.

They did NOT listen to all of their consumers who begged and pleaded for them to change their policies. They were completely content with their employees attitudes of “Don’t like it? Buy a 360,” and “#dealwithit.” They were perfectly fine with this for 4 MONTHS. Right up until they saw pre-order numbers and PANICKED. That’s not listening to your customers. That’s pandering to their pocket size.

VirtualMark

Yeah, one of the worst bits of publicity was when they told a US marine that it was basically tough luck that he didn’t have an internet connection whilst away, so he couldn’t play the Xbox One. I imagine that didn’t go down too well with a lot of people!

N2K12

the ps4 is not more powerful. All they did was put ddr5 ram in it. the rest of the specs are the SAME as the xbox one, (sony stole yet another idea) and ddr5 is high latency, which is shit for gaming. xbox won.

VirtualMark

Incorrect – the PS4 has 50% more shaders than the Xbone. If you don’t know what a shader is, or don’t understand why the PS4 is more powerful, then I’d suggest that you learn how to use Google.

Levi

I feel that they have succeeded in this generation because of the simple fact they focused on one thing: Games! They didn’t try to make the PS4 into a central hub for all your media, they focused solely on games; meanwhile Microsoft decided to focus on being a media hub, running two virtualized OS’s, monitoring for spoken keywords at all times, etc. While all those things can be amazing, everything requires resources and the XB1 just doesn’t have the hardware for that (neither does the PS4 for that matter, but they only focused on games).

Kevin Mole

I do not agree with you the machine is inferior that is why and also Microsofts e3 2013 was awful and people don’t forget, and the sudden uturn from Microsoft people are not stupid they realised what they had done I remember phil spencer being booed at e3 2013 when he announced the price the room went dead ,well that’s what consoles are for GAMING and that’s why sony have won by a mile.

Levi

I do agree that it is inferior, but I’m pretty sure that if you took the XB1 hardware and loaded Orbis on it (along with proper drivers for their hardware) that it would run their games WAY better than it does currently with all of the ridiculous background stuff.

Kevin Mole

I agree with you there but I do believe that the drm policy was dreadful as well as the e3 2013 conference and the always on spying thing my god talk about a croc of shit

greatzombiejesus

I do find it humorous that peoples memories are so short. Wasn’t that many years ago that Sony had a horrible drm policy, and the PS 3 was the expensive console that no one was buying. It took them 4 years before they caught up to x360 sales. Not saying that the x1 will catch up, but it hasn’t even been a year so still too early to call it.

As for the always, well people complained and MS got rid of it.

Kevin Mole

yes but it is the now not the past ,sony have learnt Microsoft all they did was pooh on there customers and look what as happened they did sort the ps3 out and outsells the xbox360 now you can go online and find that out if you want ,it is early days but Microsoft will never catch up you now you know that as well as I do.

greatzombiejesus

True, Sony learned, and so can MS. I realize that the ps3 outsells the x360, which is why I said it took them 4 years to catch up. I only point out the past, because gamers were saying that the ps3 was dead in the water and it seems that it is the exact same argument this time around with the roles revered. The thing is, I don’t know that MS will never catch up, but then again neither do you.

I’m just hoping that MS can put up a fight, ’cause the more competition and innovation, the better for gaming.

Kevin Mole

hi great zombie thanks for the reply but the xbox one has about as much chance of catching up as I have of pouring half a pound butter down a tomtits earhole its over when no mans sky and boodborne comes out that’s it.i am sorry mate it is to far behind I do agree with you if the xbox goes sony can do what they like but Microsoft keep cocking things up and dumping on their customers which was me because we did buy a xbox360 but we wont buy this bloody thing no chance.

Josh101

“Wasn’t that many years ago that Sony had a horrible drm policy, and the PS 3 was the expensive console that no one was buying.”

What DRM policy are you speaking of? Sony never tried taking used games away and have everyone check in with them every 24 hours. The PS3 was WORTH the money they were asking. It basically had a PS2 inside it. It was also a BluRay player, the cheapest at the time as well. Many standalone BluRay players were north of $700 at the time of PS3’s release.

“As for the always, well people complained and MS got rid of it.”

No they didn’t get rid of their policies because we complained. We complained for 4 months and they said #dealwithit. The company was perfectly fine with his attitude and telling it’s customers to buy a 360 if you want offline play. They didn’t change their attitudes until they saw pre-order numbers and panicked. THEN they started firing people and reversing their policies.

greatzombiejesus

I was referring to Sony’s drm infested CDs. As for the PS3 was worth the money, yes, I agree and I have the original 60gig that has the PS2 hardware inside before they moved to software emulation; but that doesn’t change the fact that the average buyer thought it was expensive compared to a 360 or wii and did not see the value. And yes, I stand by my statement that people complained and they changed their policies… as the most effective way to complain is with your wallet.

Josh101

Ah the rootkit fiasco. I give you that one. But that in no way compares to what Microsoft attempted. Was to create a monopoly on the 2nd hand market. A 2nd hand market that exists in EVERY consumer space in the entire world.

“And yes, I stand by my statement that people complained and they changed their policies… as the most effective way to complain is with your wallet.”

Yes this is true, but then you will reward them with your wallet after the fact? Even when they showed nothing but disdain until they saw they weren’t getting your money? That’s redundant and makes no sense. They didn’t give two shits about what the consumer wanted.

ipeedonyou

Exactly

N2K12

That was the biggest load of shit i have ever read.

Mohammed Anas

I do agree with you. Microsoft will catch up and XB1 will get better. MS messed up this time with everything Windows 8 and XB1 and now they are fixing it.

@kevin_mole:disqus you are a Fanboy. there is nothing wrong with that. i want MS to get punished for the mess they did on DRM on pricing on forcing the market, but in the same time i dont want XB1 to die. if XB1 dies will be only sony and then you will see hell.

Kevin Mole

I am not a fanboy you idiot all I am saying is I am not buying an xbox one as it is rubbish and everyone knows that you are blind to it all I bought a 360 so I can I be a fanboy Microsoft wont shit on me and get away with it.

Mohammed Anas

This proves my theory. IDIOT

Kevin Mole

as for it catching up your dreaming ,when no mans sky and bloodborne comes out it is the deathbell for the xbox one and you know it.

Mirimon

there was no negative drm policy on PlayStation Games, at all, in any generation.

also.. the ps3 was the most expensive at launch, but, it also offered MORE than what the xb1 even hopes to have.. for $600 the customer was raping Sony’s wallets…. it was also more powerful, which is not what we have this gen, with MSFT not only costing more, but still having inferior hardware that also added being more complicated to code for to the list. Every wrong turn they could have taken, they did.

There is no catching up, at all, not with the currrent product they have. It would require a revamped hardware and a price point 100-200 below Sony’s, and with policies more inline NOT happening…

Pattonfiend67

What games? Lol. Microsoft doesn’t have any games either… Bahaha.

Levi

C’mon man! They have Titanfall going for them, and I love the idea of that game. Supposedly I’ll have to wait for Titanfall 2 for PS4 but at least that is one good game for them!

Kevin Mole

titanfall I have played it gets boring take my word for it.

Zunalter

It’s a lot of fun until you play through both of the maps a few times :P

Kevin Mole

I agree with you it gets boring when you have done it all a few times why no campaign either I think the ps4 version will have a campaign mode.

Zunalter

the most redeeming quality about that game is the flexibility of movement for your player, it makes you very dissatisfied with other FPS that keep you grounded.

Markus Creech

I love titanfall. I’ve been playing that and forza pretty much nonstop. I also have it on pc.

TheKlot

titanfall is a joke. i played it on my pc a total of 12 hours.

ipeedonyou

It’s hilarious that MS invested so much time and money into Titanfail only to have it do nothing to turn the tides lol. MS’s pre-launch bullsh*t put me off for good.

PS4 has many great games that gamers love. That’s why it’s 10+ million in sales and growing. Sony’s large number of well funded 1st parties will ensure PS4 has a ton of great AAA exclusives, as many or more than PS3.

Sony’s largest 1st party studios like Naughty Dog, Guerilla Games, and Santa Monica are working on unrevealed AAA games. Expect big 1st party AAA reveals in the future. Sony’s 1st parties are well funded and the games division is making a profit.

what a line up I am looking forward to no mans sky and wild and hellblade silent hill etc etc .

Carl

PS4 is clearly a better engineered machine, better gaming console, with a stronger and more focused message, and most important of all it embodies fun. It performs well not only on games (either multiplatform AAA/indie games or Sony’s 1st party ones), its primary function, but it gives people the choice to do other things as well. The Share functions, the Share Play feature, the ability to broadcast amateur shows through the PS4 camera, emerging technologies such as PS Now and Project Morpheus, and who knows what else is coming.

All in all, I believe PS4 sales are so good so early because it is a fun games machine for everyone (not just for hardcore gamers) and does best on everything else it aims for. Unlike the Xbox One which originally was a multimedia machine which could barely play modern AAA games. And, well, tried to usher in the Big Brother era (always on, always connected, always watching/listening, second hand disc blocking), but got denied by the public. I think that due to last year’s hubris towards gamers, poor Xbox One will be viewed as an evil machine made by an evil corporation by many gamers for years. I hope it doesn’t come to this, though.

Josh101

“I think that due to last year’s hubris towards gamers, poor Xbox One will be viewed as an evil machine made by an evil corporation by many gamers for years. I hope it doesn’t come to this, though.”
I agree with everything in your post, except this portion. Microsoft brought this on themselves. They deserve to be brought down to level. For years they have shown disdain for their consumers. Xbox owners had to pay to even use the BROWSER on their consoles. NO other company locks the browser behind a paywall. Let alone ALL other functionality. They reversed that policy, which goes to show you they were raping people’s wallets.

Carl

I never owned any Xbox console and probably never will, but I am aware of those paywalls. Essentially, you paid for access to XBL and multiplayer gaming, not just for the right to use a browser.

And as far as I can tell, Microsoft’s Xbox staff didn’t know a thing about gaming, they only thought of extracting money. Even Phil Harrison, former Sony’s exec, isn’t any better. Only Phil Spencer seems a gaming guy to me, but time will tell if he’s going to turn Xbox into a more gaming business.

Josh101

Well that’s my point. You can’t harvest watermelons then try to make them sell them as squash, because that’s what people want. They made the XboxOne the way they were intended on using it. I came from a multi-console home. I had the PS3 because I didn’t want to pay to play online, I could also use all other services without a paywall. I had an Xbox because they were cheap and I like Gears of War.

“And as far as I can tell, Microsoft’s Xbox staff didn’t know a thing about gaming, they only thought of extracting ever more money.”

With Microsofts original policies, I think targeted ads was the main focus. Manufacturers will pay through the nose for information to target ads. Evident by Facebook. The XboxOne’s T.O.S. specifically tell you they are going to use your information for targeting ads and you have to agree to it. I’m sure Microsoft was intending to use the Kinect camera to gather information for this purpose, as well as other nefarious activities evident by the PRISM scandal. It was going to be Microsofts money printer. They forgot about their customers in the process..

Markus Creech

Agreed. You aren’t specifically paying for browser access. Also, i REALLY like the Xbox live functionality. I consider it fluid and very user friendly.

Josh101

So? Just because that’s not the only thing you are paying for, doesn’t mean it’s ok that it’s locked behind the paywall because EVERYTHING was locked behind the paywall.

Mirimon

except.. they told you it was to pay for online multiplayer and multiplayer servers.. thing is, nearly ALL of the workload was not done on XBL servers, it was done on the servers of the publisher’s choice of the 3rd party AAA games that were popular…

Kevin Mole

I agree with everything you say .they have dumped on us ,no more of it.

grand_puba

Research no more, here is the reason: Gamers don’t like jerks and MS behaved like jerks with the XBone. Mystery solved!

themrvin

The sole reason I bought an Xbox One over PS4 is because of Halo: Master Chief Collection and Halo 5. Otherwise I probably would have got a PS4. Halo CE on Xbox Live has been my dream since the XBConnect days.

Asmodai

So the sole reason you bought an Xbox One is support Microsoft cashing in on a brand developed by people who no longer even work for them? What made Halo great is Bungie, not Microsoft and Bungie isn’t part of Microsoft anymore. Far all intents and purposes Destiny is Halo Next and it’s better on the PS4. All you’re doing is throwing your money at a publisher exploiting a brand.

VirtualMark

Actually I really enjoyed Halo 4, which also wasn’t made by Bungie. They seemed to have kept the core game mechanics and added just enough enhancements to keep things interesting.

Zunalter

As a Wheel of Time fan, I can attest that a pinch hitter can do a great job as well.

Mirimon

you… enjoyed H4???? wow… easy to please… ooyah should be a great platform for you.

VirtualMark

I really don’t have a clue what you’re trying to say? Ooyah?

Yes I enjoyed Halo 4, although I should point out that I’m talking about the multiplayer. I don’t tend to play the single player campaigns on many games these days.

Mirimon

even if it was the multiplayer.. wow.. h2>h4 by a long shot.

VirtualMark

Well I prefer Halo 2 also, but that doesn’t mean I have to hate Halo 4. I’ve enjoyed all of the Halos, I even played 1 online over Xbox Connect.

I love things like the jet pack in 4, it literally adds another dimension to the game.

Mirimon

imo, h1-2, 3 was semi good, not soo much on the mp aspect.. imo even mech assault was better than the later half of the halo series online….

themrvin

If you are a competitive player and play mlg gametypes or simple 4v4/5v5ctf matches, with no vehicles, all of the Halo games are very good, including 4. It is the closest thing I have come across to that requires an insane amount of individual skill and team work (you can drop enemies in an instant if you double/triple team them), to Counter Strike.

To me Halo 1 brings me back to the happiest days of my life. Back before technology took us away from human contact, I remember 3-6 hour games with 12-16 of my best friends bringing their Xbox’s over to my mom’s basement and having LAN parties with pizza. If you’ve never played CTF on blood gulch or hang em high with 3 captures to win, those games bring the craziest moments ever, such as a rocket launcher flying across the map to try to stop the enemy from getting away in a warthog, then hitting it, and then the sniper on your team covering the flag and getting headshots after headshots. I remember a game that lasted 6 hours straight because its was so freaking competitive and awesome, everybody was yelling at each other and it was one hell of a time.

That, on Xbox Live, is going to be bring me to my happy place and Microsoft can gladly take my money if they are providing me a platform to play that on. Plus, I really enjoy my Xbox One. Some of the features are actually pretty neat. My girlfriend loves the Xbox Fitness with Kinect and is on that yoga thing most mornings, while I have the satellite hooked up also and can control channels with my voice. Are you getting the Master Chief collection Mark?

Mirimon

er.. I would not equate Halo, of any part of the series, with team oriented objective pvp, at all, sorry, but there are dozens of titles that better fit that bill. Games like Halo and CoD have only introduced the “i’m a hero!” concept… where the player runs about, spamming jump, seeing how many kills they can get themselves, regardless of how many deaths they have, or if their team even wins….let alone completely ignoring the objective. You can always spot a halo/cod player from one versed in tactical team oriented games.

Asmodai

“They seemed to have kept the core game mechanics and added just enough enhancements to keep things interesting.” That pretty much sums up how every Publisher has exploited every game brand ever. In other words “Keep everything just about the same and charge full price for it again… profit!” Buy hey, EA makes a killing year after year doing the same thing with sports titles so why not MS too.

torjs99

people love playstation. people put up with xbox 360 because it was cheap. when both console became the same price ps3 sales over time matched 360 sales. when given the choice at the same price point people will choose playstation over xbox.

Josh101

“people put up with xbox 360 because it was cheap.”

Exactly. I had 3 360’s over the console generation. But that was because they have been going anywhere from $50-$120 on craigslist like clockwork. Never played online because of the Gold requirement to use ANYTHING on the system. I played on PS3 because it was free.

Mirimon

one launch ps3 costs less than the amount of xbox 360’s a person would have to buy during it’s launch, since they died every 4 months on average (1 month AFTER the warranty expired.. go figure)….$600 for a $1k BD player, multimedia, pc functionailty, multi voltage, region free and reverse compatibility that will last 8-10+ years, vs. $400 every 4 months for something region locked, not multivoltage, no blueray and lacking DLNA….. (fyi, that was an average of $1200 a year just on consoles from the user, before MSFT altered the warranty admitting it has serious hardware issues.)…

people are silly….apparently math was not a strong category of the consumers from 2005-2007.

With the inferior console under their belt, the only thing MS can do is what they are doing with exclusives, however, as those are mostly timed I feel people are simply willing to wait them out by playing online with their friends and playing the free stuff from PSPlus.

My youngest brother works at Walmart and says they go through 6 or more cases of 18 of the PS4 a week. He says even Invoice and Merchandise don’t know what to do sometimes because the closest distribution centers are so overwhelmed by demand that they’ve been fortunate that they’ve gotten what’s been requested.

Phobos

No surprised there, MS screw up very bad and Sony took advantage of it.

Greenhill

Why? Because PS1 is still in the heart of many and in many parts of the world when you wanted to buy a gaming console you will find only PS available :)

Bitech

Not to mention calling the THIRD console Xbox ONE is one of the dumbest things Microsoft has ever done. “Playstation 4” is simple and straightforward; any non-gamer should figure out by its name that it’s the 4th Playstation.

domahman

If you look at the bell curve, the average peasants fall within the 80th percentile and below, these are their customers. Anything below the 50th percentile are shuffling used items…these are below peasant grade games; These are what we call “the very poor”. The rest are “ignant”.

demfax

Deranged mentally ill fanboy screaming about peasants. Get help.

Keitaro

I’ve always been an Xbox supporter since the original Xbox came out. I bought an Xbox One, but only kept it for 2 months. I wanted to have the best console so I could enjoy my games to the fullest (yes yes PC MASTER RACE is the only way to go for that). I’d build a PC but I rather have console at the moment. Seems like over 10 million people, and me, made a good decision :)

Shawn

At leaat you didn’t say what almost every Xbox loyalists post” I got the PS4 but its collecting dust or The Xbox one get all my time the PS4 sits in the box its has no games” lol. But why buy a product you don’t like, every time I see those two lines I laugh uncontrollably lol.

Vladimir Putin

SLAY SONY YASSSSSSSSSSS
YASSS BITCH

Vladimir Putin

I have two PS4 .

Vladimir Putin

I REALLY LIKE GAY GUYS . I DO NOT KNOW WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE I DON’T

Rartemass

I come from a position of having both the Xbox 360 and PS3. I had the Wii but never really used it. I also had the Xbox, PS1 and PS2. I have the PS Vita. I grew up on the NES, SNES and Gamecube. I had the Sega Master System and Megadrive. My first gaming system was a Commodore 64. I tell all this as a point of reference that I am a gamer and get systems to play the games I want to play regardless of the system it is on.
For me the choice to get the PS4 and not the Xbox One was based on several factors. The primary one is that the PS4 had exclusive games on it I wanted to play at launch and the Xbox One did not (and still does not). Other factors are things like MS’s paywall to access content free on other systems. MS’s initial policy regarding sharing a game with friends. MS’s constant backflipping on features made for instability in its ecosystem. Sony stayed on course the entire time.
I may end up getting the Xbox One if there are sufficient exclusive games to make the purchase worthwhile. But I doubt I will ever see that considering the lackluster sales it the system has. Developers won’t want exclusives on a system with a significantly smaller install base.
If MS’s failure in sales continues I would expect to see a Blu-Ray vs HD DVD scenario where the Xbox One simply drops off the market. If this happens PS4 sales will only increase.

sampson3121

this may sound stupid, and please tell me if I’m wrong but…..my 10 yr old watched the Jimmy Fallen show when they were showing off the play room for the ps4 and that was it he wanted the ps4. i looked into it and learned that the ps4 was not only cheaper but had better hardware. touch pad on the controller may be another reason, because people are now so use to using touch screens. then just good ol fashion bad press was the killer for MS…. am i wrong?

demfax

DS4 touchpad is great, devs coming up with all kinds of uses for it.

Mirimon

not wrong… many of those things are features that move the product.. and playroom is great fun with the kids, or drunk people…

Seriously? Who’s writing all these articles, xbox fans? lol. E3 is when it all backfired for MS. More expensive, DRM, all about TV features and less about games. MS had a horrible showing, and most of us were not fooled. Then Sony came in and told gamers exactly what we wanted to hear. Not just in the US but around the world. Forget all the ‘talk’ gamers vote with their dollars so OF COURSE PS4 dominated. Gamers have been saying that since E3 last year, no one listened. Now, here we are. Sony dominated and will continue because they care about gamers and putting out a great product…UNLIKE MS. Duh. I love my PS4 and 10 million others do too. Believe that.

madworld

Ps4 has good customer service than xbox one.even if your region is not supported.
Microsoft no good

nxpunk

I believe that price is clearly one of many reasons that the ps4 has been selling well and also from a tech stand point it does have better hardware than the xbone.

“PlayStation 4’s 18 CU graphics core has 50 per cent more raw power than the GPU in the new Microsoft console.” *I’m not going into detail but Google the break down if needed.

Let’s not forget about all the freebies for being a plus member. You get vita, ps3, ps4, and indie games for free. Also discounted game downloads just for being a member.

And plus Microsoft’s windows 8 blows. Ok, I was telling there for a bit, but I really can’t stand windows 8. lol

Rubix99

Do you think Windows “Threshold/9” will rememdy PC operating systems again? Still got Windows 7 but will need a new PC soon……Windows 8 is putting me off.

Rubix99

Integral Kinect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anders

If we look beyond PS4 outselling outselling xbox 2:1.
The primary reason for the high sales in this generation is the mainstream multiplayer games like FIFA and Call of Duty.
Every time one of friends move to the new generation of consoles you would be more inclined to a new gen. console. This could also have affected sales the other way around and kept players on the old gen. consoles but it didn’t.

chojin999

Bogus numbers… 10 million units sold to shops, distributors… not to end-users, real people!
Actual real numbers could be half that or less.

Anders

Quote from Jim Ryan at gamescom
“I’m pleased to announce that the install base of the PlayStation 4 has now exceeded 10 million units globally” pause “and just to be clear that means 10 million PS4s sold through to consumers”

chojin999

And you are so naive to believe that ? The worst lies have been told to sell these fake next-gen consoles already… They would say anything to make a fool of people in a hope to really sell 10 million units to real customers… something that is still far from happening…

You do know that investors and shareholders can sue for false representation right? Sony is a ppublically traded company. You don’t think they don’t have proof? Also, it’s sad you have resorted to just being a troll. A few months ago you had valid arguments, now you are just a sad person.. :(

demfax

Sony has been good about honesty with the PS4 for the most part. They have much better PR this gen than PS3, that’s one reason it’s selling so well.

MS and Mattrick, Hyrb, Penello, Greenberg, Medhi, Spencer, etc. have been making the arrogant anti-consumer PR blunders, spin, lies, and deceptive BS this gen, not Sony.

Right now PS4 ~10 million, Wii U ~7 million, Xbox One ~5 million sold to consumers.

Well do you have proof that they are bogus numbers?, Besides, microsoft have been using sales to shops, Sony has been using sales to end-users. Considering the wide release of the PS4, 10mil doesn’t seem far fetched.

And I rather trust the company themselves along with the NPD data, and both state that the PS4 has been selling very well

demfax

Wrong.

Mirimon

wow.. the old “opposite of facts” troll…. classic.

chojin999

So many Sony employees here.. uh ? There is no rush in the world of people buying the fake next-gen Playstation4 as much as there is none for buying the fake next-gen XBox One.
Apple iPad and iPhone alone are going to sell dozen times more..(just like it keeps happening every year) real actual numbers of customers, not fake marketing dept claims.

Mirimon

haha.. if only Sony did pay me… they got some nice vacation spots.

Swinny UK

I’ll tell you why its selling and has sold so quickly, IMO, its because it launched with some of the biggest name-games on the planet. Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Fifa, Battlefield… I know these are on other consoles, such as XB1, PS3, and the 360, but the best versions are on PS4-at least for consoles.
The PS4’s price was also very nice when you consider that its the more powerful console, and due to the length of last-gen, people have been clamouring for a new system and unless you prefer Microsofts exclusives, PS4 is clearly the way to go.
Other than that, Sony was on a roll last year, throughout the whole year they just kept making the right decisions, with smart-move after smart-move after smart-move, it was relentless!
Generally, they have consumers on their side at this point.

hmmm

PS2 outsold the Xbox.
PS3 outsold the Xbox360 (eventually).
Why exactly would the PS4 not outsell the Xbox One?

demfax

Something something butthurt fanboys.

Dennis Crosby

Alot factor in to why the PS4 is selling so great. Off the top of my head the first big reason its the only true next gen console in alot of countrys. The ps4 is in 80 country and Xbox one is in 13 until September 23 it will launch in another 27. Second so much bad press from the media for the Xbox one . Its still people who believe that you have to be online to use it. Third a loyal fan base.

Josh101

Thing is, the countries XboxOne aren’t available in, still have access to Amazon/Ebay etc. They can easily import a XboxOne. Those who wanted it, have it.

Dennis Crosby

Yea but they won’t have access to their countries languages

Josh101

You know, I didn’t even think of that. You would think if Microsoft thought those countries would buy the X1 in a substantial amount, they would have it ready at time of release. Microsoft fucked themselves. I guess they didn’t believe those countries were worth offering the X1.

Dennis Crosby

Yea Microsoft kinda screwed themselves with that

demfax

No, tier 2 countries have very little to do with it.

Bad PR is entirely microsoft’s fault.

Mirimon

nonon.. you just HAVE TO HAVE INTERNET to intialize the system and do it’s unlocking patch, otherwise it is a brick….. that part is still true to this day. So yeah.. internet is still required to use the XB1 at all……

as for the sales to number of countries, keep in mind that the ps4 was still outpacing the xb1 while selling in only 2 countries at launch, vs. MSFT launching in ALL 13 countries at once…… according to many’s false logic that xb1 would have sold more had it been in more countries.. why was this not true in the beginning? Sony did the standard staggered launch, like ALL other consoles have ever done….it wouldn’t matter if Sony still only sold to those first 2 countries and MSFT sold in every country in the world, ps4>xb1 sales.. in the xb1’s own region it is losing 3:1, outside the US it is losing over 7:1 against the ps4 in sales.

I bought my first console, a PS3, in 2008 for 3 main reasons. I knew the thing could also be used to play Blu-ray movies; it had a “folding-at-home” screen saver; I wanted to know what this “grand theft auto 4” thing was all about. Since then, numerous new firmware releases from Sony have allowed the blu-ray player to render 3d movies (at the expense of folding-at-home) which I am sure hurt Sony’s own blu-ray appliance business some what. I never knew why blu-ray was never offered on the Xbox-360 although there were numerous rumors about Microsoft not wanting to license blu-ray player technology from Sony even though they (M$) are cash rich. I believe it was this one fact alone which put the two companies on a different paths with M$ being very paternal (we know what’s best for you) while Sony saying “we will partner with our customers”. Putting Microsoft’s initial 2013 missteps (eg. no game loaning; no used games; must be always connected) aside, let’s just pretend we are new consumers comparing PS4 to Xbox-One. it “appears” that the PS4 product was very well thought out over a long period of time while the Xbox-One “appears” to be a quick knee-jerk response by M$ after they heard that Sony was coming out with a new console. You may think me “a fanboy” but just look at how much the Xbox sped up after they disconnected the Kinect2. If the Xbox is already that close to the limits of its performance then how did M$ expect their design to serve their needs for the next 5-6 years?

Mirimon

MSFT was offered positions in the BDA, they refused.. and now.. well.. we know the story as of today….

jacksjus

Plain and simple the X1 is that bad. Other than some MS exclusives that the diehards prefer there really is no point in owning one. It’s basically everyone versus Halo fans reflecting in the sells.

PS4 is outselling Xbox One simply because of its superior POWER (in terms of hardware). Gaming consoles are a long term investment and nobody would like to have a comparatively much weaker hardware after paying an equivalent price (something that has been recently made true – previously Xbox One was costlier than PS4).

For Xbox One to bounce back, Microsoft should admit that Xbox One has inferior hardware to PS4 and should make a significant price cut. Only this can make Xbox One keep its market share otherwise it will keep losing to PS4.

nxpunk

Very true. It’s only logical. Bigger bang for your buck.

Joe Cimmarrusti

Simply as mentioned already…Sony sold their consoles cheaper, hard core gamers do not want connect and Sony’s console is more powerful…I feel that Microsoft started out quite vain, similar to Sony launching their PS3…when will companies learn that consumers are not puppets. Also, Microsoft should have launched a smoking version of either Gears, Halo, etc…instead, they launched mediocre titles and dropped the ball completely. I have both consoles, yet find only Titanfall worth playing on my Xbox One…

justerthought

It’s actually very simple. Give the gamers ‘what they want’ and they will automatically come to you.

Gamers want a powerful next gen games console that was simple to use.
Gamers want a small and concise design that looked cool.
Gamers want better value for money in hardware and in content.
Gamers want plenty of high quality varied content and trust Sony reputation for making great games.
Gamers want a console that plays 3rd party games extremely well without screen tear or laggy frame rates.

Sony have delivered on all these points and been rewarded by the gamers.

Going forward, Sony just needs to continue delivering the same and gradually add extra multimedia features until it matches the features on the PS3, because the gamer have placed a trust that the multimedia will be expanded later to match the PS3 over time.

In contrast, Microsoft have arrogantly given gamers what they thought they wanted and tried to monetize every single facet, but they have completely misjudged the market. Gamers did not want anything that was offered by the XB1, which has now been gimped to be a lame PS4 imitation.

LOGIC

I bought PS4 because of the power plane and simple , its qupposed to be more powerful so I dont have to worry about getting a new one anytime soon.

domahman

I don’t know why either…guess ppl r dcmb.

demfax

Look in a mirror, dunce.

RCheck123

I’d argue that the PS4 has been a big success is because it was boringly designed to have bigger specs than the last one. Nothing really new. Just more grunt and thats it. Makes people feel safe when they can relate to what they know. As justerthought said, gamers want to play games so give the same, that plays them better than before.

I dont think you have seen anywhere near the end of this though. I understand the sales from a gamers perspective and the fact that MSFT inadvertently floundered in the beginning and was thus an ad for Sony itself. I do consider the Xbox a much more forward thinking design though and something that will be evident as time goes by. By that time, both consoles will have sold even more so critical mass will have been achieved on both sides.

Matt

What “forward thinking” design do you see in the X1?

RCheck123

Hi Matt, Obviously this is only my opinion, but I like what they were trying to do with Kinect and are still trying to do (this includes voice and gestures). I love the multiple OS approach (one for games, one for dash, one for binding the two) and I also like the media abilities. I know ‘gamers just want to game’ but the technical details behind getting this into a cohesive solution I find really impressive. Are they there yet? No not really but I can see the potential and thats what I mean by this not being anywhere near the end. There is a vision for expansion, a vision for integration and a hell of a lot of resources still yet to be expended on bringing it all together (azure services being one).
The internals of the X1 seem really interesting to me as well. Currently it seems to be competing on similar ground which is why it is not keeping up with the PS4 (ie. just trying to push more pixels through CPU/GPU) and I dont think it will ever keep up at that game as the PS4 GPU is known to be better specs. I suspect (and am just theorising) that once more of the other internals are better utilised in the X1 we will see much better quality and performance. I am a technophobe and again, the tech behind the X1 interests me far more than a CPU and GPU with greater frequency (yes I know its more than that but I think u understand my point).
This may give away my age but it kind of reminds of the old Amiga computer with its dedicated chips for offloading various processes. Was a great and well designed system for its day.

demfax

There will be no parity if PS4’s stronger hardware is being pushed. In essentially every way, the PS4’s hardware is more powerful than the XBO’s.

If they’re the same resolution, PS4 will have a framerate or visual effects advantage, or its stronger hardware isn’t being pushed.

With all due respect demfax, you simply quote numbers without understanding them. The 40%/50% more is bogus and PR fluff. The CPU isn’t better performing, and OS doesn’t have less overhead. The unified memory has its own disadvantages which you have chosen to forego (such as latency), and the architecture of the PS4, while similar in some components is different to X1 in many ways. Go do some research on places like beyond3d, AMD/Nvidia and take into account people who know more than we do on 3D gaming and check for yourself. It is easier to fall into the usual traps of general media reports tho. We have already had reports of how more CPU usage in the PS4 results in less and less bandwidth for the system, particularly for GPU which is identifying bottlenecks in the PS4. This is not surprising though as its a general architectural trait in mainstream stuff but it does highlight the differences. The PS4 will also progress and improve over time but I fully expect the X1 to push the same amount of pixels in the end and suprass the PS4 on some areas with the PS4 doing the same in others.
it is not just about pushing hardware, brute force alone wont get you there as both systems are relatively underpowered compared to mainstream hardware.

demfax

Wrong. In essentially every way, the PS4’s hardware is more powerful than the XBO’s.

Latency and contention still leave PS4 ahead in memory bandwidth, and no ESRAM bottlenecks.

You sound like your ready to trigger your fanboy voice so I’ll leave it at that but I can assure you, your quote of hardware specs simply proves what I am trying to elucidate. I dont care either way, as mentioned I love the tech and gaming systems tend to innovate due to necessity so I’ll watch both systems evolve over time and enjoy the ride.

Mirimon

oh, you are pretending all right.. pretending to know anything on the topic.. pretending to not be a fanboy.. sigh.. you could go into acting really.

RCheck123

Oh gee, you got me. All my discussion points count for naught after your logical verbal onslaught. I thought I might get intelligent discussion, alas no. I have mentioned a few times now I dont own either. I have a laptop gaming rig and desktop (which is what I build) and thus my interest in the tech. Perhaps I should have included pictures.
Poor little dude. You can sit with the big people one day.

If they’re both running at the same resolution the Xbox version will have lower framerate, more screen tear, and/or less visual effects, or the PS4 hardware isn’t being pushed. Any game running on Xbox One can be run with better framerate/resolution/visual effects on PS4.

Anyone with technical knowledge knew PS4’s game graphics performance would be better for the entire generation as soon as the specs were official. That was well over a year ago. Apparently it’s taking some people a LONG time to come to terms with reality.

Every console or gaming device has a power budget that can be put towards resolution, framerate, or visual effects. PS4 has a higher total budget than Xbox, and good PCs have an even higher budget.

Forza 5 or Horizon 2 would run better on PS4, and Driveclub would run worse on Xbox. Quantum Break would run better on PS4, and The Order would run worse on Xbox.

Both Sony and MS have world class coders that will extract every bit of performance out of their consoles with their drivers/APIs/SDKs. The difference is PS4 simply has more powerful hardware to work with, so it will always stay ahead in graphics performance.

“PS4 is off the shelf, brute force” is a myth. PS4 has several important customizations to GPGPU compute (8 ACEs, onion+ GPU cache bypass bus, and volatile bit flag), and unified GDDR5 RAM.

PS3 was more powerful than 360, but a nightmare to code for. PS4 is both more powerful AND easier to code for. It’s a win/win for PS4.

GDDR5 is superior to DDR3+on-die ESRAM in pretty much every way in terms of actual games performance.

Even if Xbox had a far more powerful CPU and 10000GB of 10000 GB/s memory, it’s ability to render graphics is STILL limited by the weaker GPU. There’s no getting around the weaker GPU, there’s no free lunch.

DDR3+ESRAM is still a size and bandwidth bottleneck and difficult to code for. The DMA registers help transfer data between DDR3 and ESRAM, they aren’t super special sauce.

PS4’s large GPGPU advantage will widen as devs take advantage of it. It’s not just 2 to 8 ACEs (asynchronous compute engines), but the volatile bit flag, unified memory, and onion+ GPU to RAM cache bypass bus. Not only does PS4 have more CUs to do compute on, but it can do compute work more efficiently with less impact on rendering.

Examples of GPGPU include Resogun’s voxels, Infamous’ particle system, The Order’s soft body, cloth, and object destruction physics, and MGS’s simulated weather. To port those to Xbox devs will need to reserve already limited CUs for compute or remove those features entirely.

PS4 version of Wolfenstein has higher average resolution and higher shadow quality over Xbox. The Xbox version lowers resolution down to 960×1080 to maintain 60 fps. The Xbox version of wolfenstein is 1080p if you’re staring at a wall or empty room. Otherwise it’s lower during actual gameplay.

PS4 version of Thief has higher res, framerate, and mostly higher visual effects. It’s superior in almost every way aside from trilinear filtering being traded off for parallax occlusion mapping over Xbox.

PS4 version of Trials Fusion has higher resolution and framerate over Xbox. Texture data is identical with texture streaming times dependent on hard drive speed.

PS4 version of BF4 has higher resolution, higher average framerate, and better effects over Xbox.

Some use cherry picked screenshots from where a streamed texture was 0.01 seconds from fully loading and try to use it as false proof PS4 has worse textures. This is wrong and deceptive. Hard drive speed is the main issue in texture streaming load times. Installing a SSD in PS4 decreases texture streaming times dramatically. The texture data on most multiplats is identical.

Texture data is identical between console versions. Sometimes texture streaming issues crop up in one or the other version, or even on PC. That’s generally dependent on hard drive speed. If you run a game off an SSD texture streaming issues are much less.

Texture streaming issues can also happen if you start a game before it’s fully installed to the hard drive, or if you load from a save file and some textures haven’t been loaded from the drive into RAM yet.

Texture streaming is a complex issue with multiple possible causes including drive speed, whether the footage is from a recently loaded save file where the textures haven’t been streamed into RAM yet, or whether the game hasn’t been fully installed to the HD yet.

“Sharper colors” is just the crushed blacks bug on the Xbox that can be replicated by adjusting the contrast or sharpness on your display. Oversharpening and crushed blacks are a bad thing for visual quality.

Xbox One AAA multiplats (Watch Dogs, Witcher 3, CoD: Advanced Warfare) will run 720-900p for the lifetime of the system.

PS4 could run Ryse, Forza, Dead Rising 3, or any Xbox exclusive at higher res/framerate/effects, as it has more powerful hardware.

Infamous is technically superior to Ryse in every way. 1080p, 35 fps average (according to DF), open world, next gen visual effects, cutscenes are mostly realtime, etc. Almost all of Ryse’s cutscenes are pre-rendered movies.

The Order, Uncharted 4, Driveclub, and pretty much any Naughty Dog game will trump Ryse’s visuals while running at a higher resolution and framerate.

Driveclub at E3 2014 was widely called the best looking console racing game, and impressions of The Order frequently cited that they couldn’t tell when the cutscene ended and gameplay began due to the CG-like nature of the visuals.

But as usual, rather than focus on the point at hand, you want to try and validate your purchase or bias or whatever. See my detail below, if its 50% more powerful, then it would not have trouble achieving > 1080p when the X1 can also hit it. See also witcher 3 link I posted, even the PS4 may not hit 1080p in the same vein as X1. 50% > it is not. Point being, it is PR and you have easily bought into it because it seems to suit

Mirimon

it doesn’t have issues with 1080p, 60fps.. while the xb1 does.. In order for that precious xb1 of yours to hit 1080p, it has to sacrifice something, which usually ends up being frame rate. To get good frame rate, it sacrifices resolution. To get good resolution AND frame rate, it sacrifices visual effects like AO, AA, particle density, render distance, mapping, etc…

30-50% it STILL is….. see: EVERY GAME MADE SO FAR

really.. your xbot is starting to show…

RCheck123

Sorry small guy, I dont own one. I have a desktop system and a laptop gaming rig. I usually build my own desktop gaming rigs hence my enthusiasm for the tech.
I see you moved to 30% – 50%. And the PS4 does have issues with 1080p and framerates. Hows that Killzone MP looking. Temporal projection is not native 1080p. Driveclub not released yet? Thats 60fps isn’t it? Again, I quote the witcher 3 link I posted but I am guessing you haven’t read it.
Here is a little tip tho, EVEN TYPING IN CAPS DOESN’T MAKE YOUR ARGUMENT ANY BETTER.
I am not denying the X1 issues either but I wasn’t even talking about that which system is better, just about tech in general. A point you have apparently been blind to. Defensive little boys like you always end up talking 60fps, 1080p and GPU specs on one hand with a box of kleenex in the other.

Mirimon

I can’t even read your posts now.. All I see is butthurt xbot…

RCheck123

I was wondering when the canonical fanboy word would make an appearance. Time for bed little fella. Oh I almost forgot, THIS TEXT MUST BE CORRECT AND TRUE AS IT IS IN CAPS :-)

If they’re both running at the same resolution the Xbox version will have lower framerate, more screen tear, and/or less visual effects, or the PS4 hardware isn’t being pushed. Any game running on Xbox One can be run with better framerate/resolution/visual effects on PS4.

Anyone with technical knowledge knew PS4’s game graphics performance would be better for the entire generation as soon as the specs were official. That was well over a year ago. Apparently it’s taking some people a LONG time to come to terms with reality.

Every console or gaming device has a power budget that can be put towards resolution, framerate, or visual effects. PS4 has a higher total budget than Xbox, and good PCs have an even higher budget.

Forza 5 or Horizon 2 would run better on PS4, and Driveclub would run worse on Xbox. Quantum Break would run better on PS4, and The Order would run worse on Xbox.

Both Sony and MS have world class coders that will extract every bit of performance out of their consoles with their drivers/APIs/SDKs. The difference is PS4 simply has more powerful hardware to work with, so it will always stay ahead in graphics performance.

“PS4 is off the shelf, brute force” is a myth. PS4 has several important customizations to GPGPU compute (8 ACEs, onion+ GPU cache bypass bus, and volatile bit flag), and unified GDDR5 RAM.

PS3 was more powerful than 360, but a nightmare to code for. PS4 is both more powerful AND easier to code for. It’s a win/win for PS4.

GDDR5 is superior to DDR3+on-die ESRAM in pretty much every way in terms of actual games performance.

Even if Xbox had a far more powerful CPU and 10000GB of 10000 GB/s memory, it’s ability to render graphics is STILL limited by the weaker GPU. There’s no getting around the weaker GPU, there’s no free lunch.

DDR3+ESRAM is still a size and bandwidth bottleneck and difficult to code for. The DMA registers help transfer data between DDR3 and ESRAM, they aren’t super special sauce.

PS4’s large GPGPU advantage will widen as devs take advantage of it. It’s not just 2 to 8 ACEs (asynchronous compute engines), but the volatile bit flag, unified memory, and onion+ GPU to RAM cache bypass bus. Not only does PS4 have more CUs to do compute on, but it can do compute work more efficiently with less impact on rendering.

Examples of GPGPU include Resogun’s voxels, Infamous’ particle system, The Order’s soft body, cloth, and object destruction physics, and MGS’s simulated weather. To port those to Xbox devs will need to reserve already limited CUs for compute or remove those features entirely.

PS4 version of Wolfenstein has higher average resolution and higher shadow quality over Xbox. The Xbox version lowers resolution down to 960×1080 to maintain 60 fps. The Xbox version of wolfenstein is 1080p if you’re staring at a wall or empty room. Otherwise it’s lower during actual gameplay.

PS4 version of Thief has higher res, framerate, and mostly higher visual effects. It’s superior in almost every way aside from trilinear filtering being traded off for parallax occlusion mapping over Xbox.

PS4 version of Trials Fusion has higher resolution and framerate over Xbox. Texture data is identical with texture streaming times dependent on hard drive speed.

PS4 version of BF4 has higher resolution, higher average framerate, and better effects over Xbox.

Some use cherry picked screenshots from where a streamed texture was 0.01 seconds from fully loading and try to use it as false proof PS4 has worse textures. This is wrong and deceptive. Hard drive speed is the main issue in texture streaming load times. Installing a SSD in PS4 decreases texture streaming times dramatically. The texture data on most multiplats is identical.

Texture data is identical between console versions. Sometimes texture streaming issues crop up in one or the other version, or even on PC. That’s generally dependent on hard drive speed. If you run a game off an SSD texture streaming issues are much less.

Texture streaming issues can also happen if you start a game before it’s fully installed to the hard drive, or if you load from a save file and some textures haven’t been loaded from the drive into RAM yet.

Texture streaming is a complex issue with multiple possible causes including drive speed, whether the footage is from a recently loaded save file where the textures haven’t been streamed into RAM yet, or whether the game hasn’t been fully installed to the HD yet.

“Sharper colors” is just the crushed blacks bug on the Xbox that can be replicated by adjusting the contrast or sharpness on your display. Oversharpening and crushed blacks are a bad thing for visual quality.

Xbox One AAA multiplats (Watch Dogs, Witcher 3, CoD: Advanced Warfare) will run 720-900p for the lifetime of the system.

PS4 could run Ryse, Forza, Dead Rising 3, or any Xbox exclusive at higher res/framerate/effects, as it has more powerful hardware.

Infamous is technically superior to Ryse in every way. 1080p, 35 fps average (according to DF), open world, next gen visual effects, cutscenes are mostly realtime, etc. Almost all of Ryse’s cutscenes are pre-rendered movies.

The Order, Uncharted 4, Driveclub, and pretty much any Naughty Dog game will trump Ryse’s visuals while running at a higher resolution and framerate.

Driveclub at E3 2014 was widely called the best looking console racing game, and impressions of The Order frequently cited that they couldn’t tell when the cutscene ended and gameplay began due to the CG-like nature of the visuals.

kinect was DOA, msft has given up on it, fyi, kinect was not innovation, Sony already did kinect back on ps2..

multiple OS.. again, not an innovation, but a massively crippling method of doing what a single OS can do. Too much overhead, complicated, convoluted, who ever on the team thought this was a good idea should be fired immediately.

media capabilities? again.. being an all in one, media center type device is simply something Sony doesn’t advertise because it’s a standard feature, usually including the next big thing in terms of media (ps1= games and audio/vidio playback, ps2= games, a/v playback, dvd, dts, alternate OS’s, web browsing, online, skype, social networking, USB mouse/kb use, upgradable/replaceble Storage……, ps3= games+a/v up to BD, with 3d, uncompressed audio, games actually made in native 1080p and native 3d gaming… on top of the previous usual features of running multiple operating systems, DLNA, photo/video/word editing, video conferencing, web browsing, PRINTING… it goes on and on…). again, Playstations have inherently been multi-media devices. Now.. if you are talking about that eyesore, the HDMI “passthrough” which not only degrades signal but adds SIGNIFICANT amounts of lag, doing something that anybody with a TV and/or an AV receiver can already do….. sorry, it’s about as original as a brain damaged mocking bird… MSFT.. selling people what they already have, but worse….

Azure? you realize that XBox.. and XBL, get to use LESS than 1% of those servers right? It’s not really what they are trying to sell people at all….

as far as the internals… lol, they certainly are “interesting” in the way something is interestingly odd when you watch somebody do everything in the most difficult way possible and wonder why it didn’t even enter their head that there are better ways…. The productivity of the machines will always favor the ps4 simply because of the hardware. To think that the XB1 is the only machine that might improve it’s coding is rather ignorant as well. And that is the issue, no matter how many stickers or chips you use to make your pinto run faster, it will never compare to the Veyron, which, will outpace it unmodified, and lap it thrice over when tweaked…. it’s no contest.

Innovation the xbox one is not.

RCheck123

Look, I understand you guys want to defend the PS4 and all that. I really dont care, I am not favouring one or the other, but the tech behind X1 is more interesting. PS4 just has the same stuff as is currently known about.
However suggesting “Sony did kinect on PS2” clearly shows a bias, and not the open minded interest in technology I am referring to. Kinect was and is far superior.
It is interesting you mention media capabilities as standard, yet the PS4 can do much less than PS3, X360 and the XboxOne in terms of media.
Not sure what you are alluding to with Azure. Doesn’t matter how much it uses it, the fact it does and the opportunities it provides are what is interesting as there is a lot of potential.
Multiple OS’s are innovative because it hasn’t been done before in this way. Just because the PS4 doesn’t do it, doesn’t make it bad. Your “Sony can do no wrong” attitude shows this.
Enjoy your PS4.

Mirimon

there’s is no defense here, this is simply stating the facts.
One product does, the other simply can’t.

You have been showing repeatedly that you do have a favorite, hence why you willingly ignore the facts.

1. ps2= eye toy, motion controlled gaming via camera sensor device, included microphones, PS2 also did voice control.
2. Kinect is superior to nothing, it really is trash. An overly convoluted way of doing something any standard camera can do. The tech behind it is something even D.A.R.P.A. is having issues resolving, and that’s using top of the line hardware taking up the entire back load of a 5-ton Dump truck….. and STILL LAGS.. how on earth could MSFT magically resolve the issues in something the size of a shoebox? IT DIDN’T. It lags, terribly, is inaccurate as hell, and takes up valuable resources just to misunderstand you and mess things up. VS. PS eye.. which is 60-240 frames per second, REAL TIME tracking……. and not even required for voice control….. ( as well as not using up system resources, or costing an absurd price..)

3. don’t get it wrong, the xb1 does the LEAST of all the platforms when it comes to media…. it still is playing Catch-up to the features others have. As for the pS4, yes.. it’s sad it did not come with the same updates the ps3 took a DECADE to produce………. the fact that all but 2 are patched in in less than a year, while adding features which actually are INNOVATIVE should be smacking you in the face right now..

4. Azure.. no different than LAL the cloud storage and processing and servers we have already been using the last decade are.. no really… you are being sold on Jargon.. nothing to see here….

5. there are reasons you don’t simply run multiple operating systems just to perform a few BASIC tasks simultaneously…because it’s fucking stupid.. it doesn’t even take attendance to an into to CIT course to know this. That would be like your body having THREE different spinal cords, just to wiggle your toes…not only are resources being taken up with those silly external systems, but also just in using those operating systems…. You want as little overhead as possible…. MSFT knows this concept, and somehow threw it out the windows.. (haha, made a funny). Just watch.. down the road, if MSFT continues to support the xb1 platform with updates, it will eventually do a massive patch eliminating multiple OS with a clean and Simple unified OS…. (one of many reasons why the competing platform, the PS4, does ALL functions, downloads, installs switching faster than the xb1)

It’s not that Sony “can’t do wrong”, it’s simply that they didn’t……

RCheck123

That was pretty funny. You clearly dont understand much of the tech behind the things you use.
My bias was that I find the tech in the X1 more interesting. I said that initially and it still holds true. Whether one has more ROPS, or GPU cycles or whatever I dont care. its the integration and usage I am interested in. Look at it this way, if an underpowered system can run some really graphically intense games, that technology could then be utilised in other systems for similar benefits and the tech then evolves. It is what I like.
Not your desperate justification and gratuitous masturbation at the mention of Sony.
I’ll address your points quickly tho:
1. Eye toy – really? It is not comparable to Kinect from a tech perspective. This is known.
2. Its superior to eye toy/PS eye. By far. This is also known.
3. You mention X1 does the least in media yet mention nothing. So your argument states zero facts. I am not even interested in the argument, but your exasperation is somewhat entertaining.
4. I work closely with Azure infrastructure, Amazon and rackspace so know it and know its not the same as last decade. Again your statement shows ignorance, no facts.
5. Clearly a CIT course is all you need to discredit low level hypervisor integration since its such a simple subject. Again, how it makes use of it is interesting and innovative. Is it better? time will tell. Right now, it is interesting and holds a great deal of potential over the std PS4 offering.

Mirimon

take a shower, you REEK of fanboy

Josh101

The most important thing to note of course is, everything you relate to as “the tech behind the X1” is all software related. Everything can easily be replicated on the PS4. For example Microsofts “Snap” feature has been in Sony Bravia T.V.’s for years, known as “Picture AND Picture” not to be mistaken for “Picture IN Picture.” It’s just software. The PS4 has more power to run the same software. It also has a camera you can buy with a mic in it for gesture and voice control. Sony could easily replicate the same..

demfax

PS4 is keeping its 1st place in sales this gen.

RCheck123

Are you a little defensive? Somewhat inescure? I was not arguing sales at all. PS4 is clearly in the lead. I dont care about the sales though, it is not what I was talking about at all. If it helps keep you feeling like a winner, then good for you big guy.

If they’re both running at the same resolution the Xbox version will have lower framerate, more screen tear, and/or less visual effects, or the PS4 hardware isn’t being pushed. Any game running on Xbox One can be run with better framerate/resolution/visual effects on PS4.

Anyone with technical knowledge knew PS4’s game graphics performance would be better for the entire generation as soon as the specs were official. That was well over a year ago. Apparently it’s taking some people a LONG time to come to terms with reality.

Every console or gaming device has a power budget that can be put towards resolution, framerate, or visual effects. PS4 has a higher total budget than Xbox, and good PCs have an even higher budget.

Forza 5 or Horizon 2 would run better on PS4, and Driveclub would run worse on Xbox. Quantum Break would run better on PS4, and The Order would run worse on Xbox.

Both Sony and MS have world class coders that will extract every bit of performance out of their consoles with their drivers/APIs/SDKs. The difference is PS4 simply has more powerful hardware to work with, so it will always stay ahead in graphics performance.

“PS4 is off the shelf, brute force” is a myth. PS4 has several important customizations to GPGPU compute (8 ACEs, onion+ GPU cache bypass bus, and volatile bit flag), and unified GDDR5 RAM.

PS3 was more powerful than 360, but a nightmare to code for. PS4 is both more powerful AND easier to code for. It’s a win/win for PS4.

GDDR5 is superior to DDR3+on-die ESRAM in pretty much every way in terms of actual games performance.

Even if Xbox had a far more powerful CPU and 10000GB of 10000 GB/s memory, it’s ability to render graphics is STILL limited by the weaker GPU. There’s no getting around the weaker GPU, there’s no free lunch.

DDR3+ESRAM is still a size and bandwidth bottleneck and difficult to code for. The DMA registers help transfer data between DDR3 and ESRAM, they aren’t super special sauce.

PS4’s large GPGPU advantage will widen as devs take advantage of it. It’s not just 2 to 8 ACEs (asynchronous compute engines), but the volatile bit flag, unified memory, and onion+ GPU to RAM cache bypass bus. Not only does PS4 have more CUs to do compute on, but it can do compute work more efficiently with less impact on rendering.

Examples of GPGPU include Resogun’s voxels, Infamous’ particle system, The Order’s soft body, cloth, and object destruction physics, and MGS’s simulated weather. To port those to Xbox devs will need to reserve already limited CUs for compute or remove those features entirely.

PS4 version of Wolfenstein has higher average resolution and higher shadow quality over Xbox. The Xbox version lowers resolution down to 960×1080 to maintain 60 fps. The Xbox version of wolfenstein is 1080p if you’re staring at a wall or empty room. Otherwise it’s lower during actual gameplay.

PS4 version of Thief has higher res, framerate, and mostly higher visual effects. It’s superior in almost every way aside from trilinear filtering being traded off for parallax occlusion mapping over Xbox.

PS4 version of Trials Fusion has higher resolution and framerate over Xbox. Texture data is identical with texture streaming times dependent on hard drive speed.

PS4 version of BF4 has higher resolution, higher average framerate, and better effects over Xbox.

Some use cherry picked screenshots from where a streamed texture was 0.01 seconds from fully loading and try to use it as false proof PS4 has worse textures. This is wrong and deceptive. Hard drive speed is the main issue in texture streaming load times. Installing a SSD in PS4 decreases texture streaming times dramatically. The texture data on most multiplats is identical.

Texture data is identical between console versions. Sometimes texture streaming issues crop up in one or the other version, or even on PC. That’s generally dependent on hard drive speed. If you run a game off an SSD texture streaming issues are much less.

Texture streaming issues can also happen if you start a game before it’s fully installed to the hard drive, or if you load from a save file and some textures haven’t been loaded from the drive into RAM yet.

Texture streaming is a complex issue with multiple possible causes including drive speed, whether the footage is from a recently loaded save file where the textures haven’t been streamed into RAM yet, or whether the game hasn’t been fully installed to the HD yet.

“Sharper colors” is just the crushed blacks bug on the Xbox that can be replicated by adjusting the contrast or sharpness on your display. Oversharpening and crushed blacks are a bad thing for visual quality.

Xbox One AAA multiplats (Watch Dogs, Witcher 3, CoD: Advanced Warfare) will run 720-900p for the lifetime of the system.

PS4 could run Ryse, Forza, Dead Rising 3, or any Xbox exclusive at higher res/framerate/effects, as it has more powerful hardware.

Infamous is technically superior to Ryse in every way. 1080p, 35 fps average (according to DF), open world, next gen visual effects, cutscenes are mostly realtime, etc. Almost all of Ryse’s cutscenes are pre-rendered movies.

The Order, Uncharted 4, Driveclub, and pretty much any Naughty Dog game will trump Ryse’s visuals while running at a higher resolution and framerate.

Driveclub at E3 2014 was widely called the best looking console racing game, and impressions of The Order frequently cited that they couldn’t tell when the cutscene ended and gameplay began due to the CG-like nature of the visuals.

forward??? about as forward as a generation ago… xb1 is still playing catch-up to the ps2 when it comes to features.

RCheck123

Really. You sound like demfax. A little insecure and trying to change the point of discussion. Pretty sure the PS2 could play CD’s. How’s the PS4 going with that?

Mirimon

are you saying you STILL PLAY CD’s????

fyi.. the ability is there.. if the mainstream community honestly wants to use their PS4 to play a cd…. Sony will simply patch it in…. But I doubt it, and Sony would know, since they INVENTED it…..pretty sure I could web browse without a paywall on the ps2, hows xb1 doing with that? Oh yeah.. it only took them over a decade to finally stop ripping people off for that…..

You sound like an xbot.. A little insecure, trying to change the point that YOU LOST.. next time don’t be a tool and support brand names.. simply choose the device that actually is tthe best regardless of who made it.

RCheck123

its pretty obvious you are the tool, AND YOU REALLY LIKE TYPING IN CAPS. MORON. And just a heads up, if you put a CD in the tray and it doesn’t play, then the functionality is not there. CD’s are but one example in the functionality issues. Interesting you bring up web browsing, as the PS4 is just so awesome at that too. Again, as per points below you seem to be diverging from my initial discussion. I have no interest in your justifications for your console, really I dont. Go and enjoy while your parents allow you your gaming time before bed.

Mirimon

yes.. when ignorance and fanaticism can’t hide you from the truth, turn to name calling to make your argument…

stay classy xbot..

VladimirPutin

I REALLY LIKE GAY GUYS I DON’T KNOW WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE I DON’T

:)

Guest

Why is the PS4 selling so well?

There is a simple answer to that…

THE PS4 IS SIMPLY A GAMES CONSOLE AND HAS MORE POWERFUL HARDWARE THAN IT’S TV BOX COMPETITOR.

Gamers want beautiful, next gen GAMES, not TV. So they buy a PS4.

Guest

Why is the PS4 selling so well?

There is a simple answer to that…

Gamers want beautiful, next gen GAMES, not TV, not Kinect, not weaker hardware. So they buy a PS4.

Ash Cole

Why is the PS4 selling so well?

There is a simple answer to that…

Gamers want beautiful, next gen GAMES.
They DON’T want TV, Kinect or weaker hardware.
So they buy a PS4.

All praises be to PC,
I personally think Sony from the get go was going to smash microsoft this generation after hearing about DRM disks. So therefore Microsoft is the antichrist and Sony is the Savior of console gamers everywhere.
With that I believe Sony will be able to rest as the games of next year and the year after that begin to flow out sending the cash into the pockets of big businesses.
As for me, I give recognition where recognition is due.

Matthew Sizemore

It’s funny how the best game machine (the Wii U) is never even brought up in these discussions even though it is the most innovative, cheapest, most underrated console I’ve ever known of. If you judge a console by games the Wii U is the only one with any sort of top notch game library right now. I own all consoles other than the XB1 (no need with PS4 as of yet) so no fanboyism here just facts.

No way. Most of these pro PS4/X-box articles are from paid publicists, employees and shills. Same thing from most media today. You cannot trust them.

The best source for PS4/X-Box/Wii is directly from the gamers. There you will at least get a more honest opinion.

Matt

I think there was a huge difference in design priorities. It appears that the ps4 was to have highest graphical processing possible for their target price. The Xbox, on the other hand, traded some of its graphics processing for general compute use cases (things like the always on Kinect spy camera, snap, etc..). The Xbox corporate leaders obviously misjudged what was important to the majority of gamers, and if it weren’t for their diehard fans, they’d be in even a more dire circumstance.

What I see at this point, is that MS has been caught on the wrong side of so many issue, they’ve run out of second chances in many people’s mind. So when wide spread news about games not hitting 1080p reach even casual players, they’re not likely to trust will ever be able to play true next gen games. I for one am a convert. I don’t like their original vision, and I think the trade offs they made for that vision resulted in a graphically weaker console.

Jissu

Everyone is having arguments back and fourth about the PS4 and Xbox One and I’m over here like.. Uhm yeah… Wii U is outselling Xbox One by a ton both in hardware and software. Wii U is making a huge comeback this year and people still say its the worst console of this Gen. Look up your facts kids. Plus, in response to the article, Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Smash Bros are not the only reason people buy Nintendo’s consoles. Sure they are a huge contributer to it, but definitely not the main reasons.

Now I await all the arguments that will proceed on this post. Lol.

Matt

I agree with you. The Wii has a unique and compelling gaming experience that is different than both the PS4 and XBox. The only thing XBox has gong for it, are its die hard fans, and a couple exclusives. Otherwise, its a weaker alternative to the PS4, in hardware, game variety, and ecosystem.

ouflak

What is the source for that Bluray/DVD revenue comparison table? I ask because it has always been impossible to get global market data on Bluray/DVD sales.

Michael

BOYCOTT THE PS4

#1 – Sony PS4 is now forcing you to PAY FOR MULTI-PLAYER

You will pay $144/ yr for what is was previously FREE on PS3! $144/yr – FOREVER!

Let me say that again – they are now charging you for a previously FREE SERVICE. That alone is reason to BOYCOTT THE PS4!

BOYCOTT PS4 until they get the message. If they see low sales they will scrap the yearly fee!

The only improvement over the PS4 is slightly improved graphics. Improved graphics are not worth $144/yr forever!

I have a PS4 with Kill-zone 4. I got it as a gift. It’s cool but it’s NOT WORTH $144/yr for Multi-Player.

5 years = $720.00 + $400 = $1,120.00 ???????

Come on. Wake up people. If sales are low they will have no choice but to make Multi-player free. You already pay for internet but now your paying Sony $144.00/yr?

Come on people. Wake up. This is your last chance!

You like wasting money (or your parents money) for something that is free? I’m playing PS3 for as long as possible. I have TONS of PS3 Multi-Player games (Kill Zone 3, Call of Duty Black Ops) and none of them cost me anything!

The PS4 is a RIP OFF marketing scam! it’s not as functional as the PS3! It’s like Windows 8! They have just changed the interface and improved the graphics in order to charge you $144/yr for what you used to get for FREE. You even get less free aps!

BOYCOTT PS4. If you don’t your agreeing to pay Sony FOREVER for what is supposed to be FREE!

Joel Hruska

Or…

Don’t play multiplayer?

The idea that multiplayer is “supposed” to be free is ridiculous. It’s a good. Microsoft charged for it from Day 1. If you want to play multiplayer enough, you’ll pay for it.

If you don’t, of course, you won’t. And that’s totally fine.

Michael

Don’t play multiplayer? That’s like saying buy a sailboat but charge to sail it on the water. So just keep it in your driveway.

The entire Sony experience has become multiplayer. Myself and other gamers buy exclusively for multiplayer experience and Sony/X-Box knows this from collecting our online user data.

Sony/X-box knows we are buying the games only to play multiplayer while ignoring the solo play altogether. Multiplayer is really fun because you get to play/talk with people as a group. You can keep playing the game long after you have finished the solo play. Games like Doom 3 or Call of Duty are so old yet are packed with multiplayers.

Multiplayer has always been free. Both for MS online PC games and PS3. The bottom line is that Sony has decided they are charging $144/yr for what has always been a free service. That is price collusion with X-Box. Price collusion is illegal. MS and Sony should be investigated by the government because of this.

You could not possibly support this needless expense unless you had a biased interest in PS4 or are shilling or related to Sony or X-Box in some way.

Multiplayer has always been free and there is no justification for them charging other than greed.

This is going to thin out multiplayer. People’s parents will not pay for it. Most parents complain their kids play video games too much. And most younger people do not want to waste $144/yr on this.

People are clinging to their PS3’s. They are not changing over to PS4 and I will bet you the multiplayer charge is a major reason.

I’m sure Sony will so something to make the PS3 multiplayer experience less enjoyable such as downloading a virus to slow down everyone’s PS3 or stopping multiplayer altogether.

Sony is going to shoot themselves in the foot on this. Gamers already pay for internet service and paying for something that is part of the purchase and as always been free is not fair.

Joel Hruska

To respond to this in approximate order:

1). I have never purchased any game for its multiplayer, ever. The only exception to this would be MMOs, which are obviously multiplayer-only. I have subscribed to a number of MMOs over the years and paid a monthly fee for doing so.

2) Multiplayer has not “always been free.” I don’t recall if MS charged for Xbox Live with the original Xbox, but they certainly did beginning with the Xbox 360 in 2005. MMOs have always charged for as long as there were MMOs, if you wanted to play The Realm on AOL or Neverwinter Nights you PAID for that.

3). It is not price collusion for Sony and Microsoft to decide to charge for a service that costs them money. Or do you think the servers and electricity to run them are free? It is price collusion only if they explicitly meet in secret to raise prices.

If MS sets a price and Sony matches it, without ever meeting or discussing a plan to work together to do so, it’s not collusion.

4). I do not own an Xbox One. I do not own a PS4. I have never owned an Xbox. I owned a PS2, briefly, more than 10 years ago.The only game console I have purchased in the past decade was a Wii.

Michael

Wii U has free multi-player :)

Digi V

There is 1 reason and 1 reason only PS4 is selling so well: Perception. It’s that old Sony marketing… promise next gen, say it’s amazing, kids will believe you even if you offer ZERO proof of this. Sony doesn’t even have a single killer game out. I mean, wtf? Xbox has had some great exclusives already. Sony always does this and people always fall for it. It’s ridiculous. Emotion engine, cell technology, and now the PS4 “straight forward” value. lol, both consoles are so close in specs i don’t think there’s been a generation the competition has been so alike. Really, it’s hilarious.

N2K12

Most likely ignorant people just buying a ps4, so they can say “ps4 is better and sells more”. Fail. Xbox won.

Joe Cimmarrusti

The world is so safe with people like you who cannot read between the lines…Einstein.

bar10dr

Honestly I bought the PS4 because I always get a console each generation, and after doing some simple research the PS is more powerful than xbox this gen (I had a 360 last generation). In addition to that I read a fair bit of the botched launch of the xbox one, and I really don’t like that you have to have a camera connected to the console. With PS4 its optional.

DavidGolani11

Xbox still looks like a PC in a glossy case.

Michael

Sony offers the PS4 with FREE Multi-player and the same APS as PS3 …… or I will not use it until years later when I have no choice.

I got the PS4 as a gift when it first came out and it SUCKS. It sits mounted
on my wall. PS3 is still better. Call of Duty Black Ops still has 50k –
400k+ people online any given time. And they are still making new games
for the PS3. That proves there are still more people using PS3 than
PS4.

The only thing superior about PS4 are the graphics. But not
by much. It’s more like they made them shinier, brighter with a little
extra detail. Not worth $144/yr for the rest of my life for half the APS
of the PS3.

This is a ploy to get everyone on PS3 to upgrade and
pay Sony $144/yr for multi-player. Sony’s rich greedy shareholders and
executives want more money. I already pay for internet. I’m not paying
Sony $144/yr to use multi-player mode so they can get rich until I have
no other choice.

Studies show that most kids parents don’t even
want their kids playing video games. You think parents are going to PAY
Sony $144/yr so their kids can play multi-player all day?

Did Sony check into those studies before forcing this on everyone? No way. They just wanted money.

Sony
is not getting $144/yr from me until I have no other choice or they
produce an amazing console that leaves PS3 in the dust. Right now PS3
and X-Box won are still better options.

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

ExtremeTech Newsletter

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.

Email

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our
Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.